Symantec to buy VeriSign's authentication business

Robert McMillan |
May 20, 2010

It will pay US$1.28 billion to acquire VeriSign's authentication business.

On the consumer side, Symantec will integrate the VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP) authentication service, used for two-factor authentication, with its Norton Identity Safe product line, creating a broader user-base for the VeriSign authentication services.

Symantec is also interested in the VeriSign Trusted services, used by Web site operators to certify that their sites are trustworthy. "You can expect to see additional security capabilities under the Trust seal and Trust services umbrella," deSouza said. Symantec, which acquired the VeriSign "checkmark" brand as part of the deal, plans to add things like Web site malware detection to these products, he said.

About 900 of VeriSign's 2,200 employees will move over to Symantec, and it appears there will be some layoffs too. "The intent is to have the majority of the team move over," deSouza said. "There may be some overlap as we look at the integration planning."

With the security business expected to go to Symantec by September, pending regulatory approval, VeriSign will be able to focus on moving into international domain name sales and expanding its network availability offerings such as DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack mitigation services.